qianmen

i had my farewell dinner to beijing with my chinese roommate and two high school friends who were also living in the city. we ate in a fairly empty two-story hotpot place just off qianmen that was a) not a chain restaurant, b) not fast food, and c) not overpriced! amazing. i miss eating two-hour meals in large groups.

qianmen was renovated pretty recently. i visited the area when in china in high school and it is now completely different. it's beautiful, but it is basically just a touristy outdoor mall, which i guess is what is was intended to be. this past december, i turned right off qianmen down my beloved and mercifully not-yet-completely-sanitized dazhalan alley and wandered to the west through some unlit hutongs until i emerged in the liulichang antiques area. this is another one of the many places in beijing where i would love to live.

it was really cold:

northern peace

hey, so, um, i haven't updated in...forever?

i just read vogue's newest issue and it's forced me to get back into the swing of things!

here are some final pictures from around beijing. i really, really, really miss that city. it'll be so tempting after college to just move to beijing and become a professional expat.

liz and the city, on our way to wudaokou for her birthday.

we ended up that evening in d-22, where i'd always wanted to go, and saw liz's friend's band.

a guard at tiananmen

tiananmen dusk. beijing really glows at night.

scarves en chine

a couple of my last outfit pictures from china--i think i wore a scarf there every single day.

at the terra cotta warriors in xi'an. i bought this scarf in shanghai, and lost it in beijing at a concert about a month and a half later. depressing. it was my favorite for a while...i had a tempestuous love affair with gray and yellow.

at the temple of the eight immortals in xi'an. when we first got there, it was fairly warm; i didn't even bring a coat from beijing. yet literally on our last day there, it got disturbingly cold. i was wearing all of the clothing i had brought. in this picture, i look cold but happy. the scarf is from a brilliant 10-and-20-kuai (up to about $3) scarf shop in downtown xi'an.

the smell of chinese ink of the stone carvings was indescribably rich and dark and perfect.

i went twice to the great wall at jinshanling, outside of beijing. it's my favorite site by far on the wall: wild and lonely, and only partially restored. i'm wearing chinese pink pearl earrings--there have been stretches since then where i haven't taken them out for a couple days at a time!

shanghai art

shanghai art museum, on one end of the people's park in the center of town, has tons of patriotic/propaganda art. this one is so gorgeous that i stood and stared for a few minutes.

moganshan/m50 is shanghai's newest answer to the jing's 798 art district. i love these girls' outfits, especially juxtaposed with the bike and cookie monster. the graffiti'd sign behind them that says some stuff about "new asia conglomerate" and a limited liability corporation! from industrial park to art space, just like 798.

stormtroopers, angry pandas, etc. i liked the feel of the outer fringes of moganshan--much like 798 pre-commercialization, i'd guess. the heart of moganshan, though, was commercialized and touristy yet still charming, like 798 today.

great big wall in china

continuing the trend of anachronistic posts, here is the second of my three visits to the great wall. my friends and i hiked from jinshanling (my favorite site on the wall) to simatai--hours out in the sun, and so beautiful.

look at that sky! (not to mention bradford's grin and sweet t-shirt)

descending stairs in a guardhouse in style. the shirt is one of those tees with nonsense english on it that is ubiquitous in china.

 

mimi, styling an american flag sweatshirt and ray-bans, against an incredible vista.

there was a great breeze coming in the windows of every guardhouse.

 

the forbidden city

photos from a day, long ago, this fall...when my class went to take in the forbidden city, beijing's old imperial palace. today the palace is still at the physical and political center of the city. tiananmen square takes its name from the outer southernmost gate of the palace.

in my autumn tourist's uniform: korean cardigan from the wholesale market near the beijing zoo and my university; vintage blazer (over my arm) that i got for free from a church basement sale in chicago, and puma sneakers from another similar charity sale...to me, the forbidden city is less about the spectacular architecture (my chinese art prof would call it "monumental") and more about the contrasts between the weird, super-flat, wide-open plazas between all the central buildings and the narrow, high-walled alleys in the imperial court quarters along the sides of the area.

the maze of red-walled side alleys. one of the best parts was the accidental plants growing on the gold roofs.

getting crazy in one of the museum rooms...blazer plus zoo market scarf.

we went to a charming alley/hutong near the lama temple for dinner. it is apparently the "next nanluoguxiang," but fortunately it's still got a bit of grit and funk to it. the alleys around it are not yet tourist-ified at all. if i move back to beijing (which i hope to), this is one of the neighborhoods i would like to live in:

we ate at the superb western-food vineyard cafe for dinner, in a gorgeous old courtyard house.

miaofengshan

we visited a huge number of temples in china this fall. here's the hike up to miaofengshan temple.

i love jimin's outfit. in the left of the photo.

at that point, we were still enjoying the gorgeous fall weather...we hiked all the way up to the buildings on top of that mountain!

 

 

a favorite chinese scarf, bought at the dongwuyuanr (beijing zoo) clothes market for 15 or 20 kuai, which translates to less than 3 american bucks.

schoolday

this exemplifies my average roll-out-of-bed-and-sprint-to-classroom outfit in beijing, at least before it got cold. i was spoiled this fall because our classes and dorm rooms were in the same giant building.

secondhand sweater and flats. dad's t-shirt. h&m mirror necklace and lace shawl.

that excellent little scar on my leg? from doing a cartwheel in my living room last spring and landing on an armchair...doesn't matter how many rocks i climb, caves i crawl through, or parties i dance at; it's always the weird small things that get me.

nanluogu alley evening

nanluoguxiang, a haunt of nels frye of my beloved stylites in beijing, is in one of my favorite areas of the city, just east of houhai. it's a traditional-ish hutong alley that now features boutiques, restaurants, bars, and cafes. some pictures of my first time on the alley below...more to follow.

 bradford, allison, kari at evening...allison in a nice skirt, as usual.

a bar: utopianism.

allison's gold scarf, at a restaurant in a restored old courtyard house.

i'm addicted to this place.

old beijing

i am back in the usa after fall abroad, and i still have a ton of photos to catch up on! below are some shots from around beijing.

allison surveying the west beijing sunset from our building.

mid-autumn festival tea on the lake in purple bamboo park, haidian district.

 

 

at propaganda, wudaokou.

 

 

bradford using my windowsill correctly.

 

chinese wedding

lovely lovely couple taking lovely lovely wedding photos at the confucius temple. taking vanity or wedding photos in public parks is super common here...at some time or another i have seen at least ten people being followed around by professional photographers in parks.

how cute and funny would it be to be working the ticket office at a confucian temple and have a fully dressed bride and groom, plus two photographers, come up and pay the park entrance fee?\

note the blending on the dress of the western-style white and chinese-style red.

fashionista ready

hilarious h & m ad near renmin university in haidian...

lama temple

a few extra shots from my visit to yonghegong, a lamaist temple in beijing, and the nearby confucius temple earlier this fall.

chic monk?

at the confucius temple/imperial university...scarf from beijing zoo market, old-school georgetown hoyas t-shirt.

798

at 798 art district. wearing a fake hermes scarf, plus an american apparel t-shirt and a seconhand skirt.

flowers in individual plastic pots are all over china's public space in pretty displays, but as an environmental studies student it feels like a toothache to see so many disposable containers everywhere...

reflected in an exhibition piece at the "voyage/disintegration" show at 798 space.

fashion politburo

back in beijing after really enjoying xi'an!

so the factory 798/dashanzi art district is a bit played-out by now, but it's still a pretty happening place for art, food, coffee, indie boutiques, and other literati/chic things. i'd wanted to visit for ages, and i even did a presentation on it as a freshman in my chinese language class back in chicago...i finally got to live the dream.

friends wandering.

BEIJING COOL. indeed.

meditative, in the midst of old german-designed factories.

an entire exhibit by ai weiwei, perhaps the most famous chinese modern artist. i didn't realize the exhibit was happening, so when i wandered into the gallery i just about jumped up and down in excitement that i had stumbled upon it...

monks, in a different gallery

i didn't get the chance to snap a better picture, but that ad definitely says "fashion politburo."

my own autumn holiday

so i am on academic break right now. i spent the last few days in suzhou and shanghai, and next i am headed to xi'an to see the terra cotta soldiers and wander the city a bit until next week. it is nice to be back in beijing for a night. i have determined that i am much more of a beijinger than a shanghai person, although according to a friend who lives in shanghai that mostly has to do with me being a tourist and not living there long-term.

more later! i am taking pictures like a madwoman!

bradford

here are a bunch of glimpses of bradford. his clothes always have a perfect fit and strong colors, and are never fussy.

modelesque at the lama temple/yonghegong and the nearby confucius temple. love the sneakers. this is how guys should deal with warm weather.

relaxing at our local park on national day.

in the process of peeling a pomelo, one of a billion fruits available at our nearby market and at stands on the street. allison's excellent dressy skirt/orange slipper combo also made it into the photo...pure essence of college.